LIFE series "RAF Base 1940" amazing photos ...

[Mark Allen M]

Two more quotes,

"Well the Spitfires are clearly 65 squadron and some searching reveals the Hurricanes as 253 squadron. Both squadrons are linked to Manston in early 1940 so I would put that out as a suggestion for the location. Edit: The Blenheims are 604 squadron and there's a photo of John Cunningham. So Manston it is. All three squadrons were there prior to the battle of France. There's also a couple of photos of Bob Stanford Tuck among the faces. Other than that the photos are superb."

"604 moved to Manston 15th May 40. One of the picture captions (A Hurricane) reports the aircraft lost in early June 40 so that gives the Time scale as photos taken in the second half of May / first half June 40. Further to this is John Cunningham in the photo set. He arrived with 604 on the 15th May but was detached to the AFDU on the 17th May so possibly putting the pictures as being taken between the 15th and 17th May! (Thats during the Battle of France) Interestingly the Bowsers are camoflaged, I always understood that UK based RAF vehicles were camoflaged post Dunkirk?"

[Duggy009]

RAF Northolt

[seagull61785]

I'm still not convinced this airfield is Manston Mark,

1 The topography is all wrong - i.e. there was/is no surrounding countryside that is higher than the airfield at Manston - unlike a few of these photos. One of the reasons that Manston was built where it was sited (during WWI), was that it was at the highest point in the area overlooking the English Channel. At the South Western side of the main runway the land slopes gently down to the shores of the Channel at Pegwell Bay - a matter of only a couple of miles. The English Channel is at its narrowest by Manston and on a summer's day you can easily see the coast of France from circuit (pattern) height or slightly lower. For this reason the RAF recognised the airfield would be difficult to defend from attacks across the channel so consequently didn't build many hangars or maintenance infrastructure to supplement the existing buildings. Later on during the B of B most of these hangars were destroyed by Luftwaffe attacks and for a brief period Manston 'enjoyed' the dubious honour of being the only RAF airfield on mainland England that had to be evacuated as non-operational. It was deemed indefensible during the B of B.

2 There has always been a public road dissecting the airfield through the middle. This was closed to the public during WWII and also for a brief period in the 1950's when the USAF used it as a base, but at all other times it was open to civilian use. I see no such road in the pics.

3 The main runway was sited at approximately right angles to the taxiway leading to the hangars, even before it was significantly widened and lengthened from 1941 onwards so that Manston could handle damaged bombers returning from raids on Europe. There were/are no hangars adjacent to the main runway (apart from one which was quite well back). Also the only other runway at Manston was a grass vector 24/06 which had a pronounced 'dip' in the middle and apart from a few concrete dispersal points (built by the USAF in the 50's) was not well serviced by formed concrete taxiways. Once again 24/06 was not anywhere near or adjacent to the main hangar area.


I will try and locate a copy of Bob Tuck's logbook in my archives to see where he was based in the 1939/early 1940 period. Also I'll sort out some photos I took from the air in the early 70's when I was based there, which clearly show the runway and local layout - nothing like the airfield in your pics. I'll still put my money on Kenley, Northolt or Hornchurch as being the one in the photos.

Cheers - and thanks again for posting these great photos,

Barry

[seagull61785]

Mark,

How about the following info,

604 (Blenheim) Squadron was based at Northolt from January 1940 to May 1940.

253 (Hurricane) Squadron was at Northolt from February 1940 to May 1940.

65 (Spitfire) Squadron was at Northolt from October 1939 to March 1940.

This of course supposes that all of the photos were taken at one 'sitting', but there were opportunities to take them all on the same day when the squadrons coincided.

Talking of 'sitting' - the photo of the Wing Commander sitting at his desk was Stanley Vincent, who was the Station Commander at Northolt during 1940. A decorated fighter pilot from WWI he was considered too old to fly fighters operationally in the second world war. However this didn't prevent him from joining in a scramble one day during the B of B and shooting down a German bomber.

So why would a photo of the Northolt Station Commander be included with this collection if the photos were shot at Manston?

Cheers

Barry

[Mark Allen M]

Greetings Barry, I'm just relaying what others have posted on other forums stating Manston as being a guess. Some seem quite convinced it's Manston. Your most likely correct as I'm certainly no expert on RAF history or RAF stations. But very interesting never-the-less. Thanks for your input.

[Mossie]

Talking of 'sitting' - the photo of the Wing Commander sitting at his desk was Stanley Vincent, who was the Station Commander at Northolt during 1940. A decorated fighter pilot from WWI he was considered too old to fly fighters operationally in the second world war. However this didn't prevent him from joining in a scramble one day during the B of B and shooting down a German bomber.

Maybe more than just one bomber !

Vincent often accompanied his station squadrons (usually 229 and 257 Squadrons) on scrambles and also flew lone 'station defence' sorties. He considered personally that he shot down 5 Do 17 enemy bombers on his various sorties. As he was alone on many of these sorties, confirmation has never been substantiated. He claimed a further two victories ( over Bf 109's) on 30 September 1940.During one action he was wounded, crash landing at Kenley. He later had numerous pieces of shrapnel removed from his back, having narrowly missed his spine.

[seagull61785]

Thanks for that info Mossie,

I wasn't aware of that. The more I hear about that generation and their achievements, the more my admiration and respect grows.

Cheers

Barry